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Robert Nichols
Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols (6 or 16 September 1893 – 17 December 1944) was an English poet, known as a war poet of World War I, and a playwright. Life Nichols' father was John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols, the poet. The younger Nichols was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford. He served in the Royal Artillery as an officer in 1914, in the fighting at Loos and the Somme. He was then invalided out, with shell shock. He began to give poetry readings in 1917. In 1918 he was a member of an official British propaganda mission to the USA. After the war he moved in social circles in London - Aldous Huxley became a long-term friend and correspondent - and Nichols wooed Nancy Cunard with sonnets. He was Professor of English Literature at the University of Tokyo, from 1921 to 1924. He then worked in the theatre and cinema. The play Wings over Europe (1928), with Maurice Browne, was a Broadway hit. He lived in Germany and Austria in 1933-34. He then settled in the south of France until he left in June 1940. He married Norah Denny in 1922. He is buried at St Mary's, Lawford, Essex next to the family home, Lawford Hall. Recognition In 1919 the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji wrote a Music to “The Rider by Night” (not extant in full). On 11 November 1985, Nichols was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner.http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/poets/poets.html The inscription on the stone was written by a fellow Great War poet, Wilfred Owen. It reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/poets/Preface.html Publications Poetry *''Invocation: War poems, and others. London: Elkin Mathews, 1915. *Ardours and Endurances, A Faun's Holiday, & Poems and Phantasies. London: Chatto & Windus, 1917; New York: Stokes, 1918. *The Assault, and other war poems from 'Ardours and Endurances'. London: Chatto & Windus, 1918. *The Budded Branch. Westminster, UK: Beaumont Press, 1918. *Invocation and Peace Celebration: Hymn for the British peoples. London: Hendersons, 1919. *Aurelia, and other poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1920. *''Under the Yew. London: Secker, 1928. *''Fisbo; or, The looking glass loaned'' (verse satire). London: Heinemann, 1934. *''A Spanish Triptych: Being three poems of compassion''. Cambridge, UK: Rampant Lions Press, 1936. *''Such was My Singing''. London: Collins, 1942. Plays *''Guilty Souls: A drama in four acts. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1922. *''Twenty Below: Being a drama of the road (with Jim Tully). London: R. Holden, 1927. Short fiction *''Fantastica: Being The smile of the Sphinx, and other tales of the imagination. London: Chatto & Windus, 1923. Edited *''Anthology of War Poetry, 1914-1918. London: Nicholson & Watson, 1943. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Robert Malise Nichols, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 27, 2014. See also * List of British poets References *William & Anne Charlton,'' Putting Poetry First: A life of Robert Nichols, 1893-1944'' (2003). * [http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/cgi-bin/auth.pl?N000833 Author and Book Info.com] Notes External links ;Poems *Robert Nichols in Georgian Poetry 1920-22 (2 poems) *Nichols in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Modern Love Song," "A Wandering Thing," "The Flower of Flame" ;Books * Category:English poets Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:1893 births Category:1944 deaths Category:British World War I poets Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:War poets Category:English-language poets Category:Georgian poets